In which we sample some local delicacies

April 11 - 13, 2014

From Alabama, we travelled on I-20 to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Arriving at dinnertime and always eager to check out the local specialty, I hotfooted it over to Solly's Hot Tamales.  I was pleased to discover that my instincts were right on. The local tamale maker had been a participant at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in 1997. We cooked up some red beans and rice to go with.  

https://www.southernfoodways.org/interview/sollys-hot-tamales/

The next morning we got off to an early start in order to visit the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge near Tallulah in Louisiana, where the last confirmed sighting of the Ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1944. The quiet was deafening.

From there it was all back roads to Natchidoches (pronounced NACK-uh-dish), a pretty little town on the Red River with the largest collection of historic buildings outside New Orleans. Taking the advice of my favorite gourmands, Jane and Michael Stern of www.roadfood.com, we tried a traditional meat pie and a crawfish pie for comparison at Lasyone's, a Creole treat. 

Here, Creole refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers of Louisiana, especially those of French, Spanish, and African descent.  Natchidoches got its start as a French trading outpost with the native Caddo Indians and the Spanish in Mexico. It is the oldest permanent settlement within the Louisiana Purchase.

Oakland Plantation, Cane River National Historic Park

Later Creole planters made their money growing cotton along the Cane River, a side channel of the Red River. The National Park Service maintains two of those early plantations for visitors.  Nowadays, this is a rural area where cars are few and far between.  We pulled up to the local convenience store right after a guy riding a horse.